Track 1: Nuclear Power-Up

I kicked this album off singing the blues because a lot of the topics you’ll find in the rest of the release are bittersweet as hell.

Did you know that I only recognized hip-hop as the craft I’d fully pursue after experimenting with folk, reggae, punk, ska, and indie rock? I also consider the intro to this track a little nod to those days, before I knew it would all lead to this rap thing in the end.

Strangely enough, what actually brought me into the realm of rap creation was – to this day – one of the more peculiar (and almost successful) independent musical experiments I’ve ever known. I first started identifying as a rapper because of an indie-pop-rap group that I started with a close friend of mine in 2010. We called ourselves Featherburger, and made T-Pain-influenced party pop… doused in auto-tune, featuring a conscious tilt, and a little speed rap mixed in here and there.

In all honesty, I listen back to some of that stuff sometimes and really feel like we were on to something. I’m still not really sure how I would feel if Featherburger had gone anywhere, but I do feel like the writing I was doing at that time was pretty good. Regardless of the quality of what we were doing though, the project ended up collapsing due to a falling-out between my friend and I.

I used to make a lot of music out of spite, and I’m glad that’s a habit that I’ve grown out of. As much as it can feel really inspiring – let alone satisfying – to direct some fiery lyrics at a lover-gone-sour, or an ex-partner-in-crime… it never really feels good once the 20-20 of hindsight sets in. This track has definitely got that vengefulness (is that a word?) factor to it, and I can still hear the freshness of those emotions from around that time in my delivery, to be honest.

The thing I appreciate about this song though, is that it really hits the core message I try to speak to in a lot of my music. That being the fact that no matter what life hands to us, we always have the option to let it smother us and hold us down, or to use it, compost it, build with it… fertilize the soil with it.

How is it that old saying goes? You can’t control what happens to you in life, but you can always control the way you respond to it? Yeah, something like that.